Hidden images to fuel Da Vinci Code conspiracies

Amid the obsessive scholars and scheming prelates who inhabit Dan Brown's global blockbuster The Da Vinci Code, there is a real person. Maurizio Seracini works in a high-ceilinged, colourfully frescoed palazzo just across the river from the Uffizi gallery in Florence, Italy. His premises are packed with machines that look as if they belong in a hospital or laboratory. Brown calls him an "art diagnostician", which is not a bad description for someone who probes paintings with state-of-the-art technology, often to advise museums, dealers and collectors on their restoration. [More]